Henry Louis Vivian Derozio (April 18th, 1809 to December 26th, 1831) lived a rather short but a memorable life and played a major role in ushering modern ideology among the young generation of Calcutta. He was a lecturer, a poet, a radical thinker and freedom fighter. In college, he taught literature and history. He was born of Anglo-Indian parents, his father being a half Indian and half Portuguese and his mother was a British. In spite of his foreign roots, Derozio had time and again identified himself as an Indian.
Life and Works of H.L.V. Derozio
He had penned down some of the most awesome poems of his times including the 'To India My Native land', 'The Harp of India', 'A Walk By Moonlight', 'Going Into Darkness' and 'Song of the Hindustenee Minstrel' and 'The Fakir of Jungeerah'. In the literary world, he was known as 'Juvenis'. The chief matter of his poem was liberation of India. Some of his writings also came out in journals such as Pantheon.
His concept of liberation referred to both, freedom from external rule and freedom of thinking. He was the founder of Young Bengal Society. He had helped the Bengali society in taking the initiative to fight age-old superstition. Though he died at the age of twenty-two, he had already made a name for himself as a teacher. He was the founder of 'East Indian' an English newspaper, which voiced
the opinion of the young Bengalis. He was also associated with newspapers, such as 'Calcutta Gazette',
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'India Gazette', 'The Kaleidoscope' and 'The Bengal Annual'.
He had to his credit a number of Bengali students, who later went on to become important political and administrative figures. His students were known as 'Derozians'. Some of his very famous students include Rashik Krishna Mullick, Dakshinaranjan Mukherji, Krishna Mohan Banerjee and Radhanath Sikdar to name only a few. However, his radicalism was not taken in the right spirit by many who saw it as a threat to the prevalent Hindu and Christian society. Many of his students willingly converted to Christians but the parents blamed Derozio for the same. This had led to a major uproar and the College Principle was under compulsion to expel Derozio. The college later named one of the halls after Derozio and called it the 'Derozio Hall'.
Early Life of H.L.V. Derozio and His Death
Henry Louis Vivian Derozio had two brothers and a sister and he was the eldest among them all. He had his early schooling done from the Dhurumtollah Academy of David Drummond. The family was much needy in terms of financial condition. Young Derozio's thoughts were much influenced by certain incidents and people, who were close to his family. He completed his school at the age of fourteen and went onto become a lecturer of the Hindu College. The poplar belief is that Derozio died of Cholera. After being expelled from the college, he went through acute financial shortages and malnutrition was also a reason behind Derozio's detoriating health.
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